From hence I came over the forest again--that is to say, over the
lower or western part of it, where it is spangled with fine
villages, and these villages filled with fine seats, most of them
built by the citizens of London, as I observed before, but the
lustre of them seems to be entirely swallowed up in the magnificent
palace of the Lord Castlemain, whose father, Sir Josiah Child, as
it were, prepared it in his life for the design of his son, though
altogether unforeseen, by adding to the advantage of its situation
innumerable rows of trees, planted in curious order for avenues and
vistas to the house, all leading up to the place where the old
house stood, as to a centre.
In the place adjoining, his lordship, while he was yet Sir Richard
Child only, and some years before he began the foundation of his
new house, laid out the most delicious, as well as most spacious,
pieces of ground for gardens that is to be seen in all this part of
England. The greenhouse is an excellent building, fit to entertain
a prince; it is furnished with stoves and artificial places for
heat from an apartment in which is a bagnio and other conveniences,
which render it both useful and pleasant. And these gardens have
been so the just admiration of the world, that it has been the
general diversion of the citizens to go out to see them, till the
crowds grew too great, and his lordship was obliged to restrain his
servants from showing them, except on one or two days in a week
only.
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